Who said “ flat freq response “ is the best?

Look around; you'll see that even ruler flat response bears little correlation between the perceived quality/acceptance of a speaker by the listener. 

I have handled enough speakers which deviated in some respects which others might consider unacceptable, yet they can be made to sound beguiling. People get hung up on the search for flat response, just as they� get hung up on the search for "The One," the perfect speaker. Imo, fairly fruitless efforts. 

I have heard plenty of systems which were purportedly "dialed in" to be flat response. Meh; they were pretty "flat" all right. 

To this point, no one has mentioned phase.

Minimum phase error trumps small deviations in frequency response in contribution to a realistic and non fatiguing presentation six ways to Sunday.

It is a great failing of the audio press that phase has been largely ignored for the half century since Richard Heyser's seminal work.

@ieales : 

The market has just not responded that well to it. While Vandersteen and Thiel have ardent followers they also have not dominated the high end speaker market. Neither have single driver designs. 

Best,

E

@douglas_schroeder
Hi Doug, although I do agree that there are several speakers that are nice to listen to that don’t necessarily come close to that ruler flat acoustical challenge. I have to disagree on the idea that seeking and building toward that flat response a fairly fruitless effort.
All Amplifiers and Pre Amplifiers come VERY close in a flat response, but as you know, One can and will sound much different than another. The flat response is no more than the idea that everything starts with a level playing field, but yes, you are absolutely correct that a totally flat response curve does not at all guarantee excellent results and/or a system can be satisfying with all kind of things being out of wack.
@ieales
As far as the Phase discussion, there are a ton of threads on Phase (not to be confused with phase angles), but phasing affects imaging and sound stage much more than it does frequency curves.
Tim